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California Coastal Commission Fires Executive Director Charles Lester

Decision made despite huge public support for his work

On Wednesday, February 10, in Morro Bay, CA, seven members of the California Coastal Commission ignored a huge showing of public support for Executive Director Charles Lester, and voted in private to fire him.

At no point was it ever clear what problems these Commissioners had, if any, with Dr. Lester. Five members of the 12-member Commission voted in support of Lester.

More than 150 environmental organizations, including Earth Island’s International Marine Mammal Project, supported Lester. The Commission received more than 20,000 emails and letters prior to the vote; only 4 expressed opposition to Lester. Numerous public and elected officials also expressed support for Lester, as did major newspapers in editorials. One hundred and fifty Coastal Commission staff members signed a letter of support for him, as did 35 former Commission members. Around 600 people showed up to testify at the all-day hearing on the matter in Morro Bay. All for naught.

Repeatedly, the public speakers at the hearing asked the Commission members to explain why they wanted to fire Lester. At the end of the hearing, several Commission members who voted for Lester’s ouster did not say anything, several praised Lester, and several made remarks that were vague, off the subject, critical of environmental organizations and the media, and in some cases just plain inane.

California state Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, who appointed four members of the 12-member Commission, tweeted to the public: “Let me apologize to the public. I truly thought my appointees would be better stewards of the coast.”

Lester told the Los Angeles Times the day after his firing: “This commission seems to be more interested in and receptive to the concerns of the development community as a general rule. There is less focus on how we can make decisions to implement the Coastal Act.”

The Los Angeles Times editorialized after Lester’s removal: “It’s too soon to say whether Lester’s dismissal will be a tragedy for the coast, but if commission critics are right and pro-development forces seeking to erode coastal protections orchestrated Lester’s ouster, then Californians have good reason to worry. And to be angry.”

It is not yet clear how Lester’s ouster will impact several major development projects pending before the Commission. It also remains unclear what the Commission might do with the issue of the captive orcas in SeaWorld. Last fall, the Commission amended SeaWorld’s proposed permit to expand its orca tanks to include a provision preventing any further breeding or transport of orcas from SeaWorld San Diego. The Commission voted in support of the amendment 11-1. SeaWorld has filed suit against the Commission, and the Commission is expected to consider the final text of that controversial amendment to the permit and specific Commission findings at their March meeting in Santa Monica, CA.

At the end of the day, Dr. Charles Lester gave a short statement of regret for leaving. All of us in the audience rose up to give him a standing ovation.

What You Can Do:

The executive director serves at the pleasure of the California Coastal Commission. The twelve members of the Commission serve at the pleasure of those who appoint them: Four each are appointed by Governor Jerry Brown, Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, and President Pro Tem of the state Senate Kevin de Leon.

Comments

Chech the bank accounts of those voting against him!

By Sar on Sat, February 13, 2016 at 1:30 pm

Take Back the Coastal Act by joey racano

In the last few years, the California Coastal Commission has made bold moves to protect the dwindling coast of California and in doing so, made some powerful enemies. For instance, the commission resisted allowing Shell and Exxon from drilling and fracking on Banning Ranch, last large open coastal marsh in Orange County.

They stopped Pacific Gas and Electric from blasting whales with seismic air canons at the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant in San Luis Obispo County. And probably the biggest shot heard ’round the world was their ruling to forbid the captive breeding of orcas at Seaworld San Diego as a condition of approval for bigger tanks.

These powerful business interests, who see the coast as a profit center to be plundered, have struck back, forcing the Commission to remove their own Dr. Charles Lester, no longer the Executive Director as of yesterday. Lester, hand-picked by the late great Peter Douglas, was favored 890-2 by speakers at the meeting in Morro Bay this past Wednesday, but the vote still went against him, 7-5.

Now the call is out demanding Governor of California Jerry Brown to remove and replace his Coastal Commission appointees, (Effie Turnbull, Erik Howell, Martha McClure, and *Wendy Mitchell, who is a lobbyist for PG&E), all 4 having voted for Lester’s ouster in spite of enormous public opposition.

With the petition demanding the removal of the Brown appointees only 24 hours old, the balance is the same- so far, 207-1 to have them removed and the commission’s integrity and independence restored.